


A New Purrspective

by panaceaa



Category: South Park
Genre: Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Kenny is oblivious and takes him home, Kyle gets turned into a cat, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-04-24 21:50:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14364417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panaceaa/pseuds/panaceaa
Summary: In his one week spent as a cat, Kyle learns quite a bit about Kenny McCormick.





	A New Purrspective

The thing about the world was that it never stopped moving.

Kyle learned this very quickly as he grew older. As he entered high school with college applications always creeping over his shoulder and his mother’s judgemental stare seemingly always present from across the room.

The thing about the world was there was no time to take breaks. If you stopped moving, you got left behind and Kyle couldn’t afford that. Although sometimes he still felt as if he could never really keep up. Even though he always tried to stay one step ahead of the world in an endless rush forward that was guided by the feeling of necessity. 

It was grating on him. Fucking exhausting.

This, of course, is what ended up bringing him to the little private clinic in the first place.

Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that it had been his mother’s influence. It was her, after all, who had sent him to the weird-ass clinic in order to help find a supplement for his anxiety. She was on a new all-natural herbal remedy kick and, as per usual, didn’t listen when Kyle said he’d rather go literally anywhere else.

He really should have listened to his gut. It was South Park, after all. Even once you thought things couldn’t possibly get more weird, somehow they did.

Which is why, for as angry as he was about it, Kyle really should have been a bit more surprised to find himself turned into a cat after drinking some “all-natural” concoction that had tasted weird as hell.

That wasn’t to say he wasn’t mad about it though. Because he was fucking furious.

He yowls and hisses staring down at his red-fur covered paws and at the world that had suddenly gotten a whole lot bigger. Glares up with murderous intent at the doctor who had just gotten a whole lot taller.

The doctor looks down at Kyle in true perplexion. “Wait. No, that’s...no.”

Kyle hisses again, fur standing on edge as his claws dig into the wooden floor. It’s a…strange experience, but he tries his best to focus on the anger and not the fact that he suddenly has claws, fur, and a vocabulary consisting of purley cat sounds.

“Hmm…yes this is unfortunate,” the doctor says, continuing to stare down his now feline patient. “Damn. Did anyone ever tell you that you make an adorable cat?” He says as if that’s a perfectly reasonable thing to say, and a good portion of Kyle’s anger suddenly gets replaced with horrified awe in the face of pure unbridled stupidity.

“No? No, I suppose they wouldn’t have,” the doctor mutters to himself before snapping his fingers. “Hmm, well, the good news is that it will only last a week,” he says with an overly pleasant smile before he suddenly turns his head and looks out the window, shadows crossing his face and voice turning ominously deep, “at sunrise after the evening of the seventh moon all shall be returned to as it once was.”

Kyle blinks.

...What the hell was this guy even on?

He turns back to Kyle, pleasant smile once again plastered on. “Yeah and the bad news is that I can’t be seen with you, insurance purposes and all.” He offers a small shrug.

Then he picks Kyle up and tosses him out the window.

***

It was late evening, the sun a fading orange disk in the overhead sky, when Kyle at last gave up on trying to break back into the clinic and decided to take the long trek across town to return home.

He was, of course, well aware that his parents more than likely would never even let him in the door. After all, they were the type of individuals who would rather not let random animals in their home, yet he didn’t know what else to do. Didn’t know where else to go. At this point, he was seriously considering attempting to scale the side of his house and into his room. Cats could do that, right? Scale things? He had claws, he was pretty sure he would at least be able to figure it out.

Of course, if his window happened to be shut, well then that was a whole new problem that he was trying not to think about.

This entire situation fucking blew.

Kyle’s staring down at the sidewalk and at his red-furred paws as he walks, cursing his entire existence, when he’s brought to a halt by the sound of very familiar voices approaching him. He turns to look and for a brief moment hope flares bright within his chest.

Honestly, he’s not sure what he’d been expecting.

Recognition maybe? Stan was his best friend, surely that had to have meant something.

But as he looks up at the approaching trio, he meets Stan’s eyes and there isn’t a trace of recognition. A smile. But only the smile that Stan always used to greet all animals.

“Hey guys,” Stan says, “check out that cat.”

Butters follows his gaze and his entire expression lights up when he spots Kyle, quickening his pace over to him. “Golly, I don’t think I’ve ever gone and seen such a pretty kitty.”

Kyle is frozen, like a deer in the headlights, not knowing what the hell he’s supposed to do in this situation. He never planned for this.

Cartman looks over at him and scoffs, “Mr. Kitty is a million times cuter than this asshole.”

Still despite his words, Cartman’s looking at him with something that isn’t his normal hatred and it’s creepy as hell. Kyle looks to the other two and both Stan and Butters are looking at him like he’s precious, and he’s so overwhelmed by the oddity of the situation that he doesn’t even notice Butters inching forward until he’s hovering over him.

Kyle attempts backing away, but it’s too late.

Butters quickly reaches down and scoops him up into his arms, “Awe gee, if you ain’t the most adorable little kitty!” Butters says, completely ignoring all of Kyle’s very apparent protests.

Kyle can feel his hands holding his body, and weaving through his fur and they’re proportionally large considering he’s a cat and-

It was weird. This was weird.

Most certainly had to be at the top of the most unpleasant things Kyle had ever experienced, and he experienced a lot of weird shit growing up.

Kyle yowls and writhes in his arms until the boy finally loses his hold.

Then the moment Kyle hits the ground, he runs. He runs and he doesn’t slow for a while, not until his house is in sight and he knows for certain that no one could possibly have kept up with him.

Finally coming to a stop, he stands on the sidewalk, heart pounding, not from exertion but something that might be fear. Kyle doesn’t know if he can deal with something like that again. It was quite frankly horrifying, and as he glances up at his house he has a feeling that being noticed there wouldn’t end up being much better. At best, they’d just kick him out. At worst... animal control might actually be a viable option.

Looking down at the cracks in the sidewalk, Kyle notices the blades of grass resting in the cracks that he was always too tall to notice before. Realizes that maybe he’s going to have to make it out here on his own.

“Hey, little guy.”

Kyle had been so invested in his own thoughts, that even with his enhanced hearing he hadn’t heard the person behind him approach. But he knows that voice.

He turns, and sure enough there’s Kenny McCormick. Head framed by the setting sun, causing his hair to almost appear to be glowing. It was almost...angelic. Breathtaking. Then again, it was probably just Kyle’s enhanced senses. They’d been tripping him out since this entire shitshow happened.

Kenny’s still in his work uniform and he’s holding a takeout bag of fast-food, so he’s probably just walking home from work. It really was no secret that when Kenny wasn’t at school or mysteriously absent altogether, he was working. Add that to the fact that the two of them shared absolutely zero classes, it wasn’t that much of a surprise that over time they had drifted apart.

But really, what was Kyle supposed to do? He had his own things to worry about. It wasn’t his fault, it was just how life worked.

At least that’s what he told himself.

Kenny gives Kyle a small smile and crouches down to reach out his hand to him in offering.

Kyle just stares at him, not quite sure what to make of this new development.

“It’s okay,” Kenny says gently, “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Kyle knows he wouldn’t, but it still didn’t make the whole touching thing any less weird. So, giving his hand a pointed look, Kyle sits back on his haunches and makes no move towards him.

In response, Kenny just gives a small laugh and retracts his hand, “Alright, no touching,” he shrugs, “I can respect that.” Then without another word he stands and begins to walk off in the direction of his house. Kyle watches him go, looking to his own house then back to Kenny.

And he makes a decision.

Hurrying after him, Kyle quickly catches up and walks resolutely beside him.

Kenny looks down with an amused smile. “You wanna come home with me, huh? Well, I think I can make that work.”

***

The first thing Kyle notices about Kenny’s room is that it smells nice. Familiar. Like Kenny.

It’s a weird thought.

Kyle hasn’t been here in some time, but it looks the exact same as he remembers it. Now that he thought of it, Kenny never really seemed to change either. Maybe this place was just lost in time or something, separate from the hurried flow of the rest of the world.

With no small amount of amusement, Kyle watches as Kenny concludes his tour of his small room. Considering he thought he was talking to an ordinary street cat, Kenny really was talking an awful lot. It was endearing in a way, but also kind of sad. “And well,” Kenny finishes with a shrug, “the window is always open if you want to go out.”

Switching his gaze to the wide open window, Kyle takes it in with no small amount of concern. Didn’t Kenny know how dangerous it was to keep a window open on the first floor? Wasn’t he worried about wild animals? Or drunk people? Or Eric Cartman?

Well, Kyle supposed the last one really only applied to him. But still, it was like Kenny had no sense of self-preservation.

With a final conclusive shrug, Kenny settles down on his bed with the bag of fast food he had picked up on his way home. He’d already stopped by Karen’s room to give her whatever he bought for her, and so now he was left with what appeared to be a single hamburger.

Of course, the minute he opens the wrapper the smell immediately overwhelms Kyle’s feline senses and his stomach growls. Fuck, he hadn’t eaten anything since early afternoon when he had that protein bar while he was studying.

Led by something that might be pure instinct, Kyle jumps up on the bed next to him and sniffs at the food, “Mrow?”

“Hey hey, this ain’t yours, little guy,” Kenny says, moving slightly away.

Kyle twitches his tail in irritation and narrows his gaze.

“Can’t you just eat the rats or something?”

Kyle looks properly horrified at the suggestion.

“You know,” Kenny says in between his giggles, “you remind me of my friend Kyle a bit. You’ve got hell of a lot of personality for a cat.”

While Kyle is stunned at his words, Kenny goes ahead and breaks off over half of his burger patty and places it in front of him, leaving himself with mostly bread. Kyle slowly trails his wide eyes from the much larger portion of food than he'd been expecting and up to the skinny blond in front of him. “I’ve gotten by on less,” Kenny shrugs, “I’ll try to grab something extra for you tomorrow.”

Still, suddenly Kyle can’t help the guilty feeling churning in his gut.

He’d owe Kenny for this, big time.

***

That first night, the moon is full.

Kyle looks up at it from his spot where he’s lying on the floor. Maybe it was the whole being a cat thing, but he’d been tired most of the evening and was left brimming with energy at the sight of the midnight sky. Granted, he hadn’t been getting very much sleep as a human either. Too much to do, too much to worry about. Now that he thought about it... _shit_ he was missing school wasn’t he? What was he going to do about his exams? He really didn’t have time to be wasting as a cat, and he was pretty positive that, even as weird as their town was, the teachers wouldn’t believe that he actually physically couldn’t do his homework or attend classes. Maybe he could-

Kenny makes a soft little noise in his sleep, and Kyle’s enhanced senses immediately focus in on it.

Wrapped up in a tight cocoon of blankets, Kenny is in his bed, sound asleep. If he only concentrates a bit, Kyle realizes that his increased hearing can pick up the sounds of his quiet breaths in the silence.

Kyle focuses on the noise and allows it to lull him into a state of calm and serenity. This entire situation is beyond shitty; yet, somehow that night he falls into the most restful sleep he’s had in a very long time.

***

It begins on the second night.

Kenny gets home from work and once again eats his fast-food dinner in his room, true to his word bringing something extra for Kyle. As appreciative as he is however, Kyle can’t help but notice that Kenny’s behaving strangely. Behaving a hell of a lot differently than he had been the previous night at least. He seems distracted. Repetitively looking down at his phone and practically scarfing down his food, which is saying something because Kenny had always been a fast eater to begin with.

When he’s done, Kyle watches as he gets up and digs around in his closet before pulling out a very familiar costume that he must have had tucked somewhere in the back. He pulls it on with hurried movements before heading towards the window without so much as a word.

Kyle meows from his spot on the floor.

Kenny pauses and looks down at him with a small smile, “Sorry little guy, I’ll be back by morning.”

And then just like that, he’s gone.

Kyle doesn’t get a wink of sleep that night. He sits on the window and watches the rooftops of nearby buildings looking for a familiar shadow, thoughts running through his head a mile a minute.

Kyle knew an awful lot about school. He got straight A’s in all his classes and could quote Shakespeare and label the first six rows of the elemental table. Yet, here he was, and he honestly hadn’t even known Kenny still had the damn costume.

***

The next night, the same thing happens.

However, in a change of pace, instead of sitting on the window, Kyle continuously keeps pacing back and forth across Kenny’s bedroom floor. Unable to sit still. Unable to sleep. Unable to form any semblance of calm.

When Kenny’s not at school he’s at work. Then when he’s not at work he’s out dawning the persona of a fucking vigilante.

Didn’t the boy ever sleep? Ever eat? How was this kid even still alive?

It’s only night three and already Kyle has just about had it. His eyes catch on something and he stops his pacing at the sight of Kenny’s extensive porn collection sticking out from the closet door.

He slowly stalks over to it, eyeing it distastefully.

Then, lifting a single red paw, he claws completely through the first one. It helps. Something about the feel of his claws ripping through the thin paper is so fucking gratifying. And so he continues, with the next magazine. Then the next one, reveling in the destruction beneath his paws.

When done, he noses their ripped remains under the bed.

And then Kyle sits back and eyes his work, oddly satisfied.

***

By the fourth night, Kyle has had enough.

He hasn’t slept the past two nights and it’s really starting to piss him off. So, this time when Kenny once again tries to go out the window, Kyle beats him to it. He hisses and stands firmly planted on the windowsill, preventing any retreat.

“I’m sorry,” Kenny says using that old fake voice of his, “but I have to go.”

“Mrow!”

“Come on, move!”

Kyle just hisses.

“You don’t understand!”

Kyle makes a point to slowly sit on the windowsill, curling his tail around himself in a perfect haughty representation of _try me_.

“Fine!” Mysterion snaps, “My friend vanished, okay?! He vanished and I’m the one with the best fucking chance of finding him!” He looks down, taking a deep breath, and Kyle sits there completely numb, knowing exactly who he was talking about and yet unable to believe it. When Kenny next speaks his voice is much softer, “God knows what he got himself into. It’s not like him to just disappear like this and I...Kyle’s gone and I...” He trails off before he suddenly starts laughing, a sharp and humorless sound that Kyle secretly makes a special place for on his list of least favorite things in the world.

As if his legs can no longer support him, Kenny falls to the floor in a fit of hysterical laughter, “Why am I arguing with a fucking cat?”

Heart contorting painfully within his chest, Kyle finally jumps off the windowsill and walks up to him slowly. “...Meow?”

Kenny just shakes his head, gaze trained on the floor. When he speaks his next words, his voice is impossibly quiet. Broken. “...What if he never comes back?”

His words hover in the air between them, a truth that Kyle himself was probably never intended to hear. A secret whispered in the dead of night that held the truth hidden inside Kenny McCormick’s heart.

It hurts, but Kyles glad that he heard it. He’d been in the dark for far too long.

Feet planted firmly on the ground, Kyle crosses the last few steps between them and leans down to brush his head against Kenny’s hand. Kenny freezes, looking down at the once untouchable cat. Then, with a flick of his ear, Kyle clamors up onto Kenny’s lap and settles there.

Slowly, Kenny lowers his hand and begins petting him.

“Thanks, little guy,” he whispers.

***

The next night Kenny doesn’t try to go out.

Instead, on the fifth night, he just sits on his bed and stares at a picture he holds in his hands as if it might hold all of life’s answers. Kyle jumps up on the bed beside him and peaks over his forearm only to see a picture of the two of them from years ago. He only has a faint recollection of the day. It was back when they were still in junior high, and he had found one of those old disposable cameras in one of his drawers while he’d been cleaning out his room. And so, never one to waste things, he’d promptly taken Kenny on a grand adventure around town to try to think of ways to get rid of whatever film was left.

In truth, he hardly remembered what had even ended up on that film. Once done, he did remember giving it to Kenny. Although he didn’t really remember why, it was such a long time ago after all.

Although, as he only now learned, Kenny had gone and got them developed.

He should have known that Kenny really wasn’t one to forget such things.

“It’s probably stupid, but I’ve been thinking about the day we took this a lot lately.” Kenny says softly, whether to himself, or Kyle, or the universe itself is unclear, but it doesn’t really matter. With a small laugh, he smiles down at the picture he’s still holding between his fingertips. “The kid always had these big dreams, was so passionate about everything and anything,” he laughs again. “He said there was nothing good in South Park, and he was right…in a way,” he shrugs and doesn’t say anything for a moment, closing his eyes as if he’d rather not voice the next part.

Kyle meanwhile is hanging onto his every word. Numb to everything but Kenny’s voice and feel of his own heart pounding within his chest.

“He told me that he couldn’t wait to leave this stupid town,” Kenny finally says with a sigh as he shakes his head. “And I… I told him anywhere he wanted to go, I’d go with him. Away from this shit town, away from everything.” Kenny’s grip tightens on the photo and when he next speaks his voice is barely more than a whisper, “I wasn’t lying. All I needed to do was work enough to get Karen into a good school, then I would have went anywhere if he’d asked me to… All he had to fucking do was wait.”

The thing about the world was that it never stopped moving.

Kyle had learned this quickly...perhaps a little too quickly.

In truth, he lost his sense of adventure a long time ago. There’d been no time. There’d never been enough time. Yet, grand adventure or not, he’d rushed somewhere so far ahead that Kenny could no longer follow. Left him to deal with the world on his own, still thinking back to a conversation that Kyle had quite frankly forgotten about.

Was left hoping that someday he might still come back.

Kyle suddenly feels like the biggest asshole on the planet. Here he’d thought he’d had the entire world figured out, and he’d been fucking blind the entire time.

He watches as Kenny reaches over and tucks the photo safely back onto the nightstand before finally glancing over at Kyle and shaking his head with a laugh, “You know, sometimes I start to think that maybe you’re not just any ordinary cat.” He pauses and his voice becomes no more than a fragile breath between them, “...That maybe you were sent here to help me.”

At his words, Kyle is left stunned, a mixture of thoughts and feelings running through his head.

Stress, guilt, inner turmoil.

Selflessness, and loneliness, bottled within a boy with an ever-present smile.

The tempo of even breaths as he slept.

A luminescent calm.

And he’s struck with a thought.

_Maybe this happened so that we could help each other._

“Meow…” Kyle vocalizes and then nuzzles his head into the palm of Kenny’s hand.

“Yeah,” Kenny smiles and laughs softly, “that’s what I thought.”

***

On the sixth night, Kyle is curled up beside Kenny on the bed, contented by the sound of the blond’s breathing and the warmth his body gives off. It’s a strange thought, but Kyle thinks that over the past week he’s fallen a little bit in love with the way that Kenny breathes. It’s a subtle in and out, an even and steady tempo that Kyle’s pretty sure his feline hearing could distinguish from an entire room of people. He thinks he might have fallen a little bit in love with the way that he smells, like the crisp scent of the winter air and something that’s indistinguishable yet wholly natural and earthly. Thinks that he might cherish the way that Kenny’s hands felt on his fur, and the soft way he sometimes smiled at him for the rest of his life.

It’s been an unforgettable week.

Looking towards the window, the moon high in the sky, Kyle feels a certain amount of melancholy. Not a week ago he’d thought that he’d never make it to the end of the week, and yet here he was. Some strange part of him wishing that he only had a little more time.

His eyes flicker back down towards the resting blond, then over to the picture on the nightstand.

Then again, he supposed not all things had to come to an end.

***

On the seventh and final night, Kenny had fallen asleep early after he returned from work, clearly exhausted, and Kyle had been content to rest beside him. After all, it was bound to be a long and interesting day tomorrow.

As it were, his time was almost up.

Kyle slowly gets up from the spot he had been curled up next to Kenny.

He stretches before pausing to look at him fondly, pulling the blanket a little bit higher with his teeth. Turning, Kyle jumps onto Kenny’s bedside table and grabs the photo of the two of them between his teeth before setting down the picture in the small indentation where he had previously been laying. Kyle then ducks down and quickly presses his nose against his, Kenny crinkling it slightly in response, but not waking.

Then with one last look at him, Kyle turns and jumps out the window to wait for the sunrise.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted this to be fluffy and cute, but then it kind of just turned sad.
> 
> Townycod13 drew a freaking stunning piece of art for this fic and you should totally go check it out o.o  
> https://panacea-for-all-evil.tumblr.com/post/177901418506/townycod13-a-new-purrspective-by


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